Speeches by Paul.

“Yesterday, even the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care conceded—the second one to do so—that he is “uneasy” and even “uncomfortable”. I suggest that his discomfort is nothing next to the lifelong damage that the trial will potentially do to an extremely vulnerable cohort of children, whom we should be protec…”

“I am not saying that it is a negative thing; I am trying to explain why we have seen an increase in the numbers of young people with gender dysphoria. I am stating facts; we were just talking about the importance of doing so. In 2009, only 51 patients were referred to the NHS Gender Identity Development Service for chi…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. No child put on puberty blockers at the earliest stage of puberty and whose natural puberty is permanently blocked will ever have an orgasm or be fertile. No child can consent to that. Around 2,000 children have already been given puberty blockers for gender distress, s…”

“But would you accept that it was somewhat confusing when you launched that pledge? You launched it from a primary school, and the Government website talks a lot about readiness and those early years, so anyone listening to what you were saying thought you were including primary schools. Would the Secretary of State acc…”

“So is the 2,900 reduction in primary all down to falling birth rates?”

“But fundamentally, if you pick and choose the bits that you include, you can show an increase, but the reality is that, if you look over the past two years since you have been in role, the number of teachers has decreased significantly—by around 2,300. In the last year alone, we have had a reduction of 1,900 full-time …”

“Chair, do I have time to move on to tax?”

“I am a serving Surrey county councillor.”

“Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said that 105 independent schools have closed since this policy was introduced and that she expects more to close. One fifth of those were in London and the surrounding areas, and it appears that pupil numbers in independent schools have come down …”

“We are seeing 33,000 more pupils come into the state sector, and many of those will have SEND. Do you anticipate seeing an increase in class sizes in the state sector as a result?”

“My colleague, Neil Shastri-Hurst, asked a written parliamentary question recently. I felt it did not get an adequate answer, so I am going to take the opportunity to ask you both today. How much of the £1.8 billion raised from the VAT on school fees was directly spent on teaching staff in the state sector?”

“You pledged to recruit 6,500 teachers, yet you have excluded primary schools when measuring against that pledge—why?”

“I really welcome this restriction on social media for children. As a mother, I am grateful for it, and I am grateful to everyone across the House who has pushed for it. As others have alluded to, there will clearly be practical issues and difficulties with implementation, and we all need to work together to address tha…”

“Absolutely, and it is probably worth considering where taxpayer money is going and making sure that it is going to sporting bodies that understand and are taking the law seriously.”

“Women and girls have lost medals, podium places, earnings, and some may even have been injured due to sporting bodies not complying with the Equality Act 2010 and allowing males to compete against them. What will the EHRC do to support women and girls who want to hold sporting bodies to account for these historic injus…”

“It is a good thing to raise with the Justice Secretary. It is on the record; we know this is happening. Answers have been provided; it is in black and white, so maybe I can follow up with you afterwards as to what action you will take with respect to that.”

“Is it just an intervention in a case? I am telling you now we have 10 biological males—some are sex offenders—in women’s prisons. What are you going to do about it?”

“Let us work with a real example: prisons. It looks like there are up to 10 biological males in women’s prisons. Six of those are at a prison in my constituency, HMP Downview. A significant proportion of them are likely to be sex offenders; that is what the statistics tell us. Can you advise me what you would now do wit…”

“Something that is important for us to remember—particularly when we are looking at these tensions as you so eloquently explained—is that over 50% of the population is women and girls. What action does the EHRC intend to take to address any breaches of the Equality Act robustly, particularly in hospitals, schools and pr…”

“Did you ever ask the Government to withdraw the existing code that we know is incorrect?”